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Former Deputy PM Arınç criticises arbitrary detentions

2017-11-17

Former Speaker of the Turkish Parliament and former Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç took to Twitter to criticise arbitrary detentions of Gülen Movement members, and implied Vatan Party Chair Doğu Perinçek is responsible.

Arınç has been accused by the opposition for remaining silent against the detention of an 82-year-old farmer, Mustafa Türk, from Manisa, Arınç's electoral district.

Arınç said he has known Türk for over 40 years, and added that Türk supported Fethullah Gülen before the July 2016 coup attempt solely because of Gülen's initiatives in opening Turkish schools all over the world.

But his earlier attempts to save victims from arbitrary detentions failed, Arınç noted.

Without naming him directly, Arınç quoted Perinçek who had said: "This is the golden age of Turkish judiciary" in response to the purges of thousands of prosecutors and judges after the coup attempt.

It was widely speculated in Ankara that the purged positions were then staffed by people close to Vatan Party.

"The injustice caused by the lawless judicial procedures is these people's will," Arınç said.

The ultimate aim of these people is using the despicable coup attempt as a pretext to victimise those who had nothing to do with the coup, and build a political opportunity without Erdoğan and without AKP; they want a revenge

In 2013, Perinçek was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment during the Ergenekon trials, accused of being part of a clandestine radical secularist organisation and plotting against the Turkish government. Following the fallout of AKP and the Gülen Movement after the 2013 corruption scandal, the Court of Appeals reversed the judgement, releasing Perinçek and other convicts.

The original prosecutors and judges of the Ergenekon trial are now accused for being part of the "Fethullah Terrorist Organisation" and plotting against the Turkish government.

"My statement regarding Mustafa Türk, who is held in pre-trial detention in Manisa:"